This invention relates to a protective cover for a battery terminal.
In general, battery terminals connected to battery posts are covered by protective covers in order to prevent a short circuit with a car body. Such a protective cover is described in JP 7-85858. This protective cover consists of a covering member provided at one end of a main body that is attached to an electric wire connecting member of the battery terminal. The covering member can be opened and closed due to hinges provided at the end of the main body. A clamping member that clamps a battery post is covered by closing the covering member, the clamping member protruding from one end of the main body. The dimensions of this protective cover correspond to the width of the clamping member of the battery terminal.
The diameters of the battery posts may differ depending on the battery. In such a case, two kinds of battery terminals are required for the battery posts. Along with this, protective covers of different sizes must be provided. That is, the production costs rise since two sizes of special purpose protective covers must be manufactured. Moreover, managing parts becomes problematic since the parts must be handled separately due to the differing sizes.
The present invention has been developed after taking the above problems into consideration and aims to present a protective cover that is suitable for terminals having different sizes.
According to the invention there is provided a protective cover for a clamp type battery terminal of a battery post, the terminal comprising a clamping member and a wire joining member, wherein said cover comprises a body having a position fixing member for housing a clamping member and adapted to grip the circumference of a predetermined size of clamping member, resilient arms protruding to the interior of said position fixing member for contact with a relatively smaller size of clamping member, said arms being adapted to retreat when in contact with a clamping member of said pre-determined size.
Such a cover is adapted to fit both large and small clamping members, the resilient arms ensuring that the clamping member is positively engaged. Accordingly a single plastics moulding will suffice with consequent reduction in production cost, inventory and risk of wrong assembly.
Preferably the cover body includes a hinged side wall which permits insertion of the clamping member from the side. This arrangement facilitates movement of the position fixing members into engagement with the clamping member, and avoids interference inherent in a clamping member inserted from below.
The terminal typically has a clamping member and wire joining member depending from a linking member which defines a channel. Preferably the cover includes a wall extending from one side into said channel. Such a wall both electrically isolates the end of a wire in the wire joining member and prevents fore and aft movement of the cover on the terminal.